PARIS (Reuters) – Vaccine company Valneva reported positive Phase 3 results on Monday for its inactivated, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA2001.
“These results confirm the advantages often associated with inactivated whole virus vaccines,” said Valneva Chief Executive Thomas Lingelbach.
“We are committed to bringing our differentiated vaccine candidate to licensure as quickly as possible and continue to believe that we will be able to make an important contribution to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
Valneva added it was preparing for trials in children aged between 5-12 years and for a Valneva-sponsored trial to evaluate VLA2001’s performance for people in need of a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.
The company’s shares slumped last month after Britain said it had cancelled its contract for about 100 million doses of the vaccine Valneva was developing, partly over concerns about when it would win approval for use.
Nevertheless, Valneva has been expanding the trials of its VLA2001 COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and remains in talks with the European Commission over a potential contract.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Kim Coghill and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
